Hashish could also be authorized in New York, however it’s a must to be 21 years of age to purchase it.
It seems, nevertheless, numerous NYC weed outlets – particularly unlicensed ones – could also be skipping required age checks.
“I actually think a lot of parents would be surprised,” mentioned Dr. Ryan Sultàn, an assistant professor of medical psychiatry at Columbia College.
Sultàn and a workforce of Columbia researchers just lately printed a examine estimating 90 p.c of New York Metropolis’s unlicensed hashish retailers fail to verify IDs on the door, as required by legislation. The analysis discovered 48 p.c of unlicensed weed outlets did not conduct any age verification in any respect – together with on the level of sale. That implies underage consumers are having little hassle discovering a hashish store keen to disregard the foundations and promote pot with out asking for ID.
“Access to cannabis, the barrier just keeps dropping,” Sultàn mentioned.
To check hashish retailers for the examine, analysis assistant Peter Menzi, 22, helped map greater than 800 hashish outlets working within the 5 boroughs. Then he visited a consultant pattern of them – posing as an underage buyer to see if the clerks would require him to provide identification earlier than promoting him a bag of pot.
Although mother and father would possibly assume hashish outlets function like liquor shops, utilizing routine ID checks to dam underage purchases, that’s not what Menzi discovered within the metropolis’s patchwork of unlicensed pot outlets.
“Cannabis is pretty unequivocally harmful to kids, but it is a lot easer to access cannabis than it is alcohol in the city,” Menzi mentioned.
Though the Columbia examine discovered broad gaps in the best way unlicensed hashish outlets verify IDs, it discovered one hundred pc compliance on the state-licensed shops Menzi visited.
However even state-licensed outlets don’t at all times comply with the foundations.
When the I-Group despatched a 21-year-old intern to buy pot from KushKlub, a state-licensed hashish retailer on the Decrease East Aspect, she had no hassle shopping for with out age verification. Utilizing a hid digital camera, the I-Group captured video displaying there was no safety on the door to verify ID as she walked in. And when the intern confessed she had no identification, our hid digital camera recorded because the counter clerk knowledgeable the shopper she might simply give a fictitious title.
“Just put ‘Liz,’ L-I-Z and then put ‘F’ for the last initial,” the intern informed the clerk. “As long as I don’t need to show you my ID.”
Liz was not her actual title. Earlier than finishing the transaction, and for good measure, the intern requested a second time.
“And you’re sure you don’t need my ID?”
The clerk proceeded to course of the sale, accepting $35 and handing the shopper an eighth of an oz of hashish.
A rep for the KushKlub, who declined to provide his title, later informed the I-Group his workers ought to have checked for ID each on the door and earlier than the sale of any hashish product. However he mentioned he would want to analyze the matter earlier than commenting additional.
Taylor Randi Lee, a spokesperson for the New York State Workplace of Hashish Administration, mentioned shutting down unlicensed shops and stopping entry to hashish for folks below 21 are prime priorities for state regulators.
“We take any violations seriously and will investigate and take appropriate action against any retailer found failing to properly ID customers,” Lee mentioned in an announcement to the I-Group.
Sultàn mentioned the aim of the examine was to not make judgments on whether or not hashish legalization quantities to good coverage, however relatively to check whether or not {the marketplace} for weed is functioning in a approach that protects youngsters and younger adults, whose growing brains are extra vulnerable to the destructive impacts of hashish.
“The biggest concern I always have for youth with cannabis is the set-up for sort of re-wiring their brain toward a brain that is more prone to addiction in the future,” Sultàn mentioned.
